The Snowbirds were down nine points after the third quarter but sprung the unlikely rally.

Jake Cuca scored a season-high 19 points for St. Mary, which also had seven points from Patrick Switalski.

Dugan Kelly snagged seven steals in the victory.

SM 7th-grade drills Onaway

GAYLORD - The St. Mary seventh-grade boys' basketball team breezed to a 52-15 win against Onaway Monday as every player scored.

Jacob Haviland led the Snowbirds with 15 points while Gabe Nowicki added nine. Michael Stutesman dropped in seven points and had five assists.

J-L 8th-grade falls to CL

JOHANNESBURG - The Johannesburg-Lewiston seventh-grade boys' basketball team dropped a pair of games to Ski Valley Conference rivals this week.

The Cardinals first dropped a 46-19 game to Central Lake Monday. Blake Huff led J-L with six points while Alex Krupiarc had five points. Brian VanCoillie, Gunnar Owens and Sean Aisthorpe each had two while Brett Kortman and Josh Greene each had one.

J-L then fell 39-23 to Bellaire Wednesday.

Green and VanCoillie each had seven points for the Cardinals (2-4) while Aisthorpe had five. Huff and Owens each contributed two points.

Central Lake beats J-L

JOHANNESBURG - The Johannesburg-Lewiston eighth-grade boys' basketball team dropped a couple of close contests this week.

The Cardinals first lost 42-38 to Central Lake Monday, despite 16 points from Calvin Winkelman.

Tyler Bowling added seven points for J-L while Chris Purkiss had four points. Justin Huff scored three points and John Wiggs, John Cook, Philip Welser and Andrew Krupiarz two points apiece.

J-L then suffered a 34-31 overtime loss to Bellaire Wednesday.

Bowling led the Cardinals with 10 points while Winkelman had eight. Cook chipped in seven points and Purkiss six for J-L (1-5).

JV Snowbirds girls finish 19-1

GAYLORD - The St. Mary junior varsity basketball team closed out its near-perfect season Thursday with a 54-21 win against Harbor Springs that lifted the Snowbirds to 19-1 on the season.

"It was a great year," said coach Kevin Foster. "It was a very fun team to coach."

The team's sophomores led the way against the Rams, but the whole team contributed.

Jessica Schmidlin played strong inside, Caitlin O'Connor was solid at the point, Megan Kippe led some nice fast breaks, Brandi Platte and Jamie Topp brough high-energy defense while Jackie Cosgrove and Abigail Koprowicz played hard-nosed in the paint.

Freshmen Grace Westerman, Liz Foster and Lauren Reppuhn also contributed well with Reppuhn leading the way with 16 points and nine rebounds. O'Connor had 12 points while Schmidlin had 10 points and nine rebounds.

St. Mary won by an average of 30 points per game this season.

The win followed a 37-17 victory at Bellaire Tuesday. Foster led the Snowbirds with seven points while Schmidlin, O'Connor and Reppuhn had six points.